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Older Learner tries Assimil for Spanish | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Learning Log |  | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes  Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 121 of 175 14 May 2012 at 6:51pm | IP Logged |
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I took a day off from Assimil and did a few hours of Michel Thomas yesterday. It was a nice break. The Michel Thomas material seems trivial for the most part, after this much of Spanish with Ease, but it does seem to make Spanish itself seem easy. I'll be back to lesson 57 passive wave and lesson 8 active wave shadowing/scriptorium tonight.
steve Edited by sfuqua on 14 May 2012 at 6:51pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 122 of 175 16 May 2012 at 3:06pm | IP Logged |
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Assimil Spanish with Ease passive lesson 59, active 10, shadowing/scriptorium
This log is probably less interesting since I've been having fewer problems lately. The latest lessons, however, seem to be faster than it is humanly possible to repeat. There is a lot of vocabulary and the meaning of the sentences does not immediately pop into the head when you read all of the words. I think I may need to do more reading aloud before shadowing, to be sure that the vocabulary and the meanings of the sentences "stick." I've been having more problems finding time to complete my lessons lately; I am a teacher, a father, and a husband, and those things much come first. I've been using Anki, with some premade decks of Michel Thomas Spanish in random moments; they are very easy, but it does fill random time with a little Spanish. steve Edited by sfuqua on 25 May 2012 at 11:57pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 123 of 175 17 May 2012 at 11:20pm | IP Logged |
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For some reason I had a sudden improvement yesterday. I wish I could understand these things, but for what ever reason my Spanish suddenly got much better. It would be nice to have one of these breakthroughs every day. I could understand better; I could shadow better. The people on the radio were speaking more clearly; the vocabulary in the books I was looking at was simpler. I'm not getting enough speaking practice, but I spent a good part of the night dreaming in Spanish. I don't think that counts though. I am continuing to plow through Assimil. I may not be able to get to Mexico this summer; I may have to go take care of my parents, both of whom are ill. Darn!
steve 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 124 of 175 19 May 2012 at 5:59am | IP Logged |
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Assimil Spanish with Ease lesson 62 passive wave, lesson 13 active wave shadowing/scriptorium.
A bad day followed the good day I wrote about in the last post, almost immediately. I don't think I could get a correct sentence out today. I don't know what was right yesterday, or what was wrong today. I did my study time OK, but I couldn't seem to speak Spanish coherently. It was very frustrating. I felt like I haven't learned anything. I could read OK; I mean that wasn't a problem. I could understand OK; that wasn't it either. I just don't know. I'm pretty frustrated. Obviously, I've learned a lot of Spanish. My listening and reading comprehension seem to be doing a steady, step by step improvement. My speaking, however, goes in fits and starts, and sometimes still drops back to pretty pathetic -- a great day yesterday, a pathetic one today. I don't know anything to do except keep plugging at Assimil, and then plug away at native speaker materials when I finally finish this course. Looking at things objectively, I find it hard to believe that my speaking won't eventually get pretty good if my passive skills keep getting better. A week somewhere where I had to use Spanish all the time would really help at this point... I really love this language and the wonderful world that it opens up. What a joy it would be to be an "insider".... On my lunch break, I was listening to the news today on the radio in Spanish, and I was able to follow most of it. It was fun to listen to the slightly sarcastic view of US politics. For a few minutes, I was able to be one the people they were talking to, the US population that understands Spanish. I just wish I could speak well enough to be taken seriously :( steve steve 2 persons have voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 125 of 175 23 May 2012 at 12:06am | IP Logged |
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Assimil Spanish with Ease Passive wave 65, Active wave 16.
This is where I started to hit the wall the last time through SwE; I can see why. The lessons get quite a bit harder here; there is a lot of vocabulary, and I would swear that parts of some of the passages are designed to be tongue twisters. I think that lesson 64, with Baldomero, is where the magic mushrooms really started to affect the author. I've cut back on the shadowing a little bit and increased the emphasis on doing the regular Assimil active and passive waves (as I understand them). Here's what I did yesterday: Lessons 61,62,64 Listen to L2 read L2 Lessons 61,62,64 Listen to L2 read L1 Lessons 62,63,64 read aloud, checking L1 if I don't understand a word. Lessons 13, 14, 15 read aloud (including 1st exercise), checking L1 if I don't understand a word. Lessons 13, 14, 15 translate L2->L1 aloud passage and exercise 1, do exercise 2 aloud also. If I make a mistake, repeat the correct sentence. Lessons 43-64 shadow, looking at L2 when needed. This took about an hour and 15 minutes. I just talked to one of my students who speaks Mexican Spanish. He correct my Castellano "th" sounds and insisted that "vacaciones" starts with an English "v" sound. I don't think his "v" is right, but I bet mine isn't, since he noticed it. I had a conversation with a receptionist in the dentist's office a few days ago. The woman I talked to seems to be a native speaker of Spanish; she didn't sound exactly Mexican to me, but who knows in San Jose? She liked my "th's" and that I actually used some correct grammar. I think she is used to listening to some pretty bad pidgin Spanish. I know that my R's particularly my RR's are not right. I can get out a two or three tap trill, so I can differentiate between R and RR, but I can't seem to produce one of those huge rolling RRRRR's, like my five year old daughter. I've always thought that I was trilling too far back in my mouth, with my tongue pulled back too far, but I couldn't seem to figure out how to trill closer to the front where it should be. I got started trilling using the DRRR trick, which worked almost immediately, but did not quite lead to a correct R in my case. Recently, when I have been shadowing, I have noticed my R's moving toward the front of my mouth after 10 or so minutes of shadowing. They don't sound as good as the R's further back in my mouth, but I think I unconsciously trying to imitate the sounds I'm hearing from the native speakers. I'm going to try to relax and just see what happens; maybe I will work into a more correct R through a series of stages... steve Edited by sfuqua on 23 May 2012 at 12:06am 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| poorenglish_ Newbie Spain Joined 4633 days ago 12 posts - 17 votes Speaks: Spanish* Studies: English | Message 126 of 175 23 May 2012 at 12:11am | IP Logged |
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The English "v" sound is a different thing, in Spain we say "vacaciones" with a "b" sound. Hope it helps. Keep the good work ;) 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| sfuqua Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 4764 days ago 581 posts - 977 votes Speaks: English*, Hawaiian, Tagalog Studies: Spanish | Message 127 of 175 23 May 2012 at 6:07am | IP Logged |
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I suspect that my interlocutor is one of those Spanish speaking Mexicans who are so used to English that they differentiate between V and B.
I also bet that my Spanish V is just an English B sometimes. I'm a little jealous of my student who is going to spend the summer in Mexico. I'm going to be stuck here, or so the family finances say. I need to find a bar somewhere where I can find some kind people who will speak Spanish with me. In vino veritas. I'm still too shaky in my spoken Spanish. It really seems to be lagging behind my other skills. I suppose this is just what you would expect with the way that I am learning the language. steve 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Bjorn Diglot Senior Member Norway Joined 4867 days ago 244 posts - 286 votes Speaks: Norwegian*, English Studies: German, French | Message 128 of 175 23 May 2012 at 6:25am | IP Logged |
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I have been following your log with interest. Seeing how you are using an Assimil course.
Good luck with your Spanish adventure. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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